Nonexclusive or speculative surveys were initially undertaken for energy exploration as early as 1957 by Sidney Schafer and Associates, who measured gravity on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, to Florida. Currently a significant portion of the world seismic fleet is involved in both 2D and 3D nonexclusive seismic work, and as a result, the industry has largely benefited from the widespread availability of high quality inexpensive geophysical data. In this article we try to rekindle the corporate memory about the rules of the game in the energy business with respect to this valuable resource.